Mormon Civil War

I grew up in an LDS Mormonism ready to take on the world, fill the world and rescue mainstream Christianity from its fundamental doctrinal flaws. Fearless about an intellectually defendable thoughtful faith and fizzing with big ideas about people, Gods, and our destiny in the stars of a vast universe that could keep up with the expanding realms of everything that science and science fiction could imagine, as well as modern social and political developments towards the supremacy of democracy and the empowerment and self-actualisation of every individual. The Big Ideas and the scriptures they are found in are all still there, but the practical delivery of that vision for the future has been a tragic and catastrophic disaster. Join me as I explore why, and perhaps rekindle a New Hope for what Mormonism can offer the galaxy.

With April 2024 General Conference looming in a few days, the Church haemorrhaging members and facing extinction in the coming decade, and a First Presidency in their 90’s and on their very last legs, how about a different kind of General Conference Predictions show? Rather than being hopeful but realistic in our predictions for what the General Authorities will actually announce from their velvet thrones, what if we predicted everything they actually NEED to announce and change to save the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the spiralling vortex to oblivion it is crashing through on their watch? What would it take for people like us and the 80% of young members and new converts who leave it to stay or return? We have lots of ideas. Have a listen and let us know what YOU think it will take in the comments on Youtube at the Mormon Civil War and Latter-daily Digest channels.

What if there was a General Conference of the leading LDS Loonbats selling dangerous brutal parenting, energy healing mumbo jumbo, porn addiction paranoia, anti-science propaganda, child rescuing fraud with celebrity donors, thought-stopping Blind Faith and end time prepper visions of imminent apocalypse?  All curated by notorious ‘Visions of Glory’ Mentor-To-The-Maniacs Thom Harrison… with a General Authority thrown in?  Well, there was!  Find out what they said before it was thrown down the internet memory hole last month, how President Nelson is validating and encouraging them all, and how THEY are increasingly controlling the Church and its priorities and programs.  

As I continue to map out a pathway for radically reforming the LDS Church to avoid its imminent self-destruction that is already authorised by its scriptures and written constitution, things just got wild! This episode will begin to guide you through the astonishing parade of scammers and lunatics with their own visions for the rescue and future of the Church who have been infiltrating every level of the religious and political hierarchy and the wider culture in Mormonland... with headline-grabbing consequences of murder, torture, kidnapping, and financial fraud. 

The Church's public reputation has transformed in just one year of mayhem from harmless conservative Mom 'n Apple Pie wholesomeness into a blood-soaked tabloid horror show, but there are much deeper connections between what these apparent extremists are teaching and doing and the mainstream Latter-day Saints and General Authorities than most people realise. 

The 11A 'Take Back Control' miniseries will resume soon, but here is a special treat.  Maven crossed the world to join me in the Sceptred Isles and review an extraordinary and rare encounter in Online Mormon World.  Brian Hales, regarded as the leading expert on Joseph Smith's Polygamy having published a trilogy about it, went on Michelle Stone's podcast '132 Problems:  Revisiting Mormon Polygamy' podcast which is the flagship voice for a growing movement of Latter-day Saints who deny Joseph had anything to do with polygamy.  They claim it was retrofitted into Mormonism by an elaborate conspiracy of the prophets and apostles who succeeded him as leaders of the Church while otherwise being super faithful and orthodox Church members.  Brian had agreed to bring his best evidence and see how it stood up to her analysis and settle the matter once and for all.  Instead he threw away this opportunity,  turned the conversation into a personal attack on Michelle, and shamelessly lied his head off!  We ended up rooting for Michelle and her powerful plea for freedom of thought and rational discussion in the LDS Church even though she is totally wrong about Joseph's polygamising.  You couldn't make it up!  Things get crazy, revealing, and an absolute hoot... When Apologists Attack.

As the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints falls into its final self-inflicted spiral to destruction here in the UK, around the world, and even in its American heartlands, it's time to get real.  After 5 years of exploring the causes and solutions for this crisis, in this miniseries I will make the strongest case I can for what has gone wrong and how we have to bring about significant regime change at the General Authority level to have any hope of the Church surviving, or deserving to survive.  Is it even possible?  Let's find out and take back control!

As we conclude the Bradgate Episodes 10 series things get truly crazy. Imagine if despite the Church officially disavowing all racism in and out of the Church, past and present, in its 2012 statement and 2013 Race and the Priesthood Gospel Topics Essay, and everything President Nelson has been saying to the Mormons and the NAACP about moving on from every trace of the Church's racist past, and Brad Wilcox being vilified and appearing to be publicly corrected by Ahmad Corbitt, his black fellow Young Men General Presidency counsellor, for saying the 126 years of racist segregation didn't count for much and asking why it happened is “asking the wrong question”.... they don't actually mean ANY of it. 

What if in reality the First Presidency are teaching that the racist ban on anyone with a single black African ancestor being ordained to the priesthood or allowed to receive temple ordinances WAS God's commandment all along? What if Ahmad Corbitt is quoted front and centre in the current Institute curriculum saying exactly the same things that Brad did about the racism, and much worse? What if that same curriculum and same First Presidency have admitted that LDS prophets make up their own inaccurate nonsense and teach it as doctrine so often they should just stop even trying to explain or justify ANY of their commandments.... but we should all still
unconditionally obey them anyway? 

You REALLY couldn't make it up. It's back to the future for LDS racism. It’s back to the future for “When the Prophet speaks, the thinking has been done.”  It's all more whackadoodle than even I suspected... and my expectations are astonishingly low!

In this episode Bradgate reaches the day of reconning.  Brad Wilcox's fellow Young Men General Presidency member Ahmad Corbitt is quickly brought in to rehabilitate him in his next youth fireside. It should have been perfect - Brad sort of apologises without being specific about much, and his token black friend spins a yarn about how cosmopolitan Brad is, and how he actually lived in Ethiopia as a child, implying he can't possibly be racist really.  But then it all unravels - Brad's childhood in Ethiopia turns
out to be the worst rather than the best possible experience for him to become
sensitised to racism, and I discover that Brother Corbitt the rescuer and
Dallin Oaks have both been working hard to bring BACK the Racist Mormon God at
every opportunity.  They have literally been teaching exactly what Brad was made
to apologise for teaching... and it has all been put into the new Institute
course about Church History!  You couldn't make it up. 

In this episode we find out how the Church got rid of racist segregation in 1978 and started to abandon the doctrines justifying it in 2012, and then how and why these guys are wrecking all that progress.  It's Groundhog Day in Racist LDS Zion and we are going to have to start that fight all over again. 

With perfect timing, this week Ahmad Corbittdeclared war on 'Activism Towards the Church'.  Mormon Civil War is not afraid of this fight, and Brother Corbitt is going to lose!

In this episode we experience and discuss the very best and very worst of Brad Wilcox - a fantastic General Conference talk that would have transformed by experience as a youth but came 3 decades too late, and his nosedive into weak apologetics, sexism and racism in his infamous Alpine Tri-Stake Youth Broadcast. 

We also have some serious thoughts and fun with superstar Mormon historian Patrick Mason's startling suggestion that he and his academic peers should really be the ones running the Church and deciding its theology while the General Authorities concentrate on using their lawyer and Business Management skills to do the admin.  And I have to admit that this is basically what has been going on for years already.

In this episode we finish analysing what Brad Wilcox said in his online fireside Sunderland, England Stake hosted before launching into his Alpine Tri-Stake Disaster, and the rehabilitation that made everything worse, in the following episodes.  I also do my best to keep up with developments in the shocking exposure by Associated Press reporter Michael Rezendes, whose 'Spotlight' investigative journalism opened the can of worms of abuse coverups in the Catholic Church, as he takes a flamethrower to the same systems of cover-up and failing to protect children it knows are being harmed going on the the LDS Church.  The long overdue day of reconning has finally come.  We also hear from 3 brilliant podcasters I admire sharing powerful insights and wisdom, and we discover that the Church is still up to the same old tricks reediting film of General Authorities speaking that it inflicted on Elder Ronald Poelman in actual 1984.  It's a bumper edition as the Mormon Civil War rages on - so much to keep up with!